


Bored

by LadyZoZo



Category: Doctor Who, Gallifrey (Big Finish Audio)
Genre: CIA, F/M, Gallifrey, knife, playfulness, soft
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-03
Updated: 2020-07-03
Packaged: 2021-03-05 03:35:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,276
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25047745
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyZoZo/pseuds/LadyZoZo
Summary: Leela is helping Narvin in his office and she is not enjoying it
Relationships: Leela/Narvin
Comments: 3
Kudos: 9





	Bored

Narvin’s office was incredibly boring. Leela would almost say it was the most boring room in the city, however she’d been to the trial room so she knew that wasn’t true.

Though, to give Narvin’s office some credit, it shouldn’t be boring. In fact on principle it should be one of the more exciting rooms in the city. There were pleasant, flashing lights all over the walls, soft beeps that were soothing to listen to, and plenty of fun clicky buttons to press. The only bad part of the room was the drinks machine, which seemed to only release a liquid that was 50% caffeine and 50% sour milk. Actually that explained a lot about Narvin.

So yes, it wasn’t the room that was boring. It was Narvin that was boring. Narvin wouldn't let Leela touch anything. She was made to sit still, far away from all the exciting parts, and be quiet while he worked. She just had to sit at the back of the room, by the weird drink machine, and just know that the exciting stuff was within her reach, but also so far away.

Why did Leela even have to be here anyway? Just because Romana was off-world didn’t mean that Leela had to be somebody else’s bodyguard. Why couldn’t she just have a few days to herself? Narvin didn’t even need a bodyguard, nor did he want one, he was more than capable of looking after himself (ok well maybe that’s debatable) and he certainly did not need Leela looking after him.

Leela sighs loudly, not bothering to hide her boredom. She’s idly playing around with her knife in her hand when Narvin turns around to look at her.

“Are you playing with a knife?” Narvin asks, in shock.

Leela looks down at the knife in her hand, only now really realising that she’s twisting it about in her hands. “Yes I am. Is there a problem with that?”

“Well yes!” Narvin stares at her in disbelief. “You can’t just mess about with a knife!”

“Why not?” Leela asks. She throws the knife up in the air and catches it just before it can fall onto her leg. “I know what I am doing.”

“It’s dangerous though.” Narvin says uneasily, watching the knife. “You could hurt yourself, or me.”

“I did not know you cared about my wellbeing.” Leela remarks with a smirk to tell Narvin she was being sarcastic. “Do not worry Narvin. I have been using a knife since before I can remember. I know what I am doing.”

“Well that explains a lot about you.” Narvin remarks.

“It does?

“Yes.”

Leela raises her eyebrow and carries on fiddling with the knife.

“Leela stop.” Narvin sighs. “It’s… distracting.”

“Then turn away.” Leela shrugs. “I am not making you watch me. And I am only doing this because you are forcing me to be bored.”

“I can’t just turn away.” Narvin scoffs. “Not when I think you might start screaming any second because you accidentally stabbed yourself in the leg.”

Leela presses the point of the blade against her exposed thigh, applying just enough pressure that it stings her a little but nowhere near enough to actually damage her. “Why? Does that worry you?”

“Yes.” Narvin says concisely.

“That is very sweet.” Leela grins.

“No!” Narvin counters. “Your blood on my floor is not sweet.”

“Sure, that is the reason.” Leela says sarcastically. “It has nothing to do with worrying about my wellbeing at all does it.”

“Absolutely not.” Narvin lies. Leela had always wondered how such a poor liar had become the head of a secret intelligence agency.

“Of course not.” Leela smiles and lies the knife flat on her lap, the point starting to hurt a bit too much now. “But alright. I will stop, if you let me sit beside you and help.”

“What?!” Narvin looked lost for words. “This is very confidential information, I can’t just let anyone help me. Besides, would you even know what to do?”

“Narvin do you think so little of me that you think I would betray you?” Leela tilts her head as she asks the question. “I promise that anything I see will not leave this room. And as for not understanding, I am sure you can teach me.”

“But Leela I-”

“Narvin I am really bored.” Leela interrupts. “I am not asking for you to start a revolution. I just want to feel useful.”

Narvin sighs and considers this. Leela swears she can see the cogs turning in his head as he thought about it. Finally he nods his head and moves aside a little. “Alright then. Move your chair beside me and I’ll show you what you can do.”

Leela grins and does as she’s told. “Thank you Narvin.”

“You’re welcome.” Narvin mumbles as he sorts out what’s on the screen. “Now listen, don’t touch anything unless I tell you to. This is extremely sensitive equipment, connected to the Matrix itself.”

Leela nods. “I understand. If I touch the wrong thing I will anger the dead Time Lords.”

“Not exactly but… well yes actually.” Narvin says it in a surprised tone that Leela raises an eyebrow at. “Right, so at the moment I’m just sifting through data looking for inconsistencies and potential falsities.”

“This is Gallifrey, surely all the information is contradictory?” Leela says it in a humorous tone but there’s some seriousness to it too, as she knew enough about Gallifrey to know that it’s history was just as malleable as it’s myths, if not more.

“Well yes that’s why this is a fairly hard job.” Narvin agrees. “Now, what you can do to help is press these two buttons whenever I tell you to. If I say real, press the yellow one, and if I say forged, then press the red one. Understand?”

Leela nods. “That is simple work. What is it for?”

“The computer is scanning the data for any signs of being fake.” Narvin explains. “But we still have to do some of it manually: namely sending it to be added to Matrix or filing it away as something to investigate. That’s what the buttons do, send the information to either the Matrix or to a CIA agent that’ll investigate the forgeries.”

“Oh ok.” Leela looks between the screen and the buttons. “That seems easy. Is that all you do all day?”

“Of course not, this is just the tedious part. There are other procedures that go into this but I shan’t bore you with the details.” Narvin clicks a button on the computer and unpauses the program it’s running. “Now, let’s start.” 

Leela nods and puts a hand on the yellow button, assuming that she would be using that one the most. Narvin starts typing on the computer and carries on decrypting the data. About a minute passes before he says “Real.”

Leela presses the button and grins at the clicky sound it makes. The computer beeps as the information is sent to the Matrix.

Narvin starts typing again and Leela awaits her next instruction. It’s not the most exciting job in the world but at least it was better than nothing.

Narvin tells her “Real” a few more times and each time Leela presses the yellow button. She gets into the motion of waiting for arvin to talk so she can press it again and starts becoming quite good at pressing it the moment he talks. He’s yet to find a ‘forged’ one but Leela doesn’t mind, she’s sure she’ll get a chance soon.

“Real.”

Leela presses the button.

“Real.”

Leela presses the button.

“Re- uh, wait no forged.”

Too late, Leela had pressed the yellow button right away. “Um, Narvin I pressed the wrong one.”

“What?!”

“You said real first!”

“I know but I-” Narvin groans and shakes his head. Leela reaches out and presses the red button in an attempt to fix everything. Narvin sees this and grabs Leela’s arm to stop her.

Too late. It had been pressed.

“Leela you fool!” He yells. “You just sent the next bit of potentially real data to the forgeries office!”

“I was trying to fix things!” Leela defends herself. “Can we stop it?”

“There is a way but…” Narvin groans again. “Ugh, I really didn’t want to do this today. Press that blue button.”

Leela hits the button. “What does it do?”

“Halts all my computers.” Narvin explains. As if on cue, all the lights, monitors and beeping in front of them freezes. “We should be able to get someone to retrieve the data before it gets sent to the wrong place now.”

“You do not sound happy about it though.” Leela notes.

“I’m not.” Narvin dryly replies. “As I’m sure you know, the only person with full access to the Matrix is the Lady President. Romana is going to have to go in and retrieve the information herself.”

“But Romana is off-world today.” Leela reminds him.

“Exactly.” Narvin grumbles. “I can’t do any more work for the rest of the day because if I do then all this data is going to corrupt the Matrix and send one of my agents off on a wild goose chase.”

Leela looks down, her heart heavy with guilt. “Narvin I am sorry.”

Narvin sighs and shakes his head. “It’s fine. It was an easy mistake to make. I should have read the screen properly before talking.”

Leela nods, not saying anything. She wished she’d waited for him to finish before pressing the button. But no, she had been too enthralled by the button pressing that she’d ignored Narvin.

“Leela it isn’t your fault.” Narvin assures her.

“It is.” Leela affirms. “You cannot do any more work today because I did not listen and pressed the wrong button.”

“No.” Narvin says bluntly. “I was the one who stammered, you shouldn’t beat yourself up over this.” He sighs and carries on talking. “You know, when I was a young trainee I made the same mistake.”

Leela looks up at him with shock. “You did?”

Narvin nods. “Yes. I was helping the then-Coordinator in much the same way you are now and I hit the wrong button. We had to call down the President to fix it.” He chuckles at the memory. “Needless to say they weren’t happy. I think it put my training back a few months; they were that annoyed at me.”

“That is unfair.” Leela frowns. “It was only a small mistake.”

“Then why are you beating yourself up over it?” Narvin asks her.

“Because I-” Leela glares at him.

Narvin smiles ever so slightly. “See? You said it yourself. It was an easy mistake to make, don’t feel bad for it.”

Leela sighs. She knew he was right. “What will we do while we wait for Romana then?”

Narvin shrugs. “We can’t leave the room. It’s procedure to stay by all computers while they’re on, and we can’t turn these ones off whilst they're frozen.”

“So we are stuck in here all day?”

“I’m afraid so.” Narvin sighs. “It’ll be a long day.”

Leela sighs.

“You could always leave.” Narvin suggests. “Only I have to stay, you’re free to go.”

Leela shakes her head. “Romana told me to remain with you. I would be abandoning my work station if I left you.”

“Ah.” Narvin nods. “How… professional of you.”

Leela shrugs. “It is not professional to sit in an office doing nothing all day.”

“Very true.” Narvin agrees. “Sorry Leela, but this will be a very boring wait.”

Leela huffs. “Only if we let it be boring. Is there not anything we can do to pass the time?”

“I can’t think of anything. Can you?”

“There is…” Leela laughs. “No, you would not want to.”

Narvin frowns “What?”

“Just a fun way me and Romana like to waste time.” Leela grins. “You would not want to.”

“Oh, right.” Narvin looked confused. “Well, any ideas we can actually do?”

Leela shakes her head and yawns. “I am tired, ideas are not coming to me easily.”

Narvin nods. “I understand. Humans do have a faster exhaustion rate than Time Lords. You can take a nap if you like.”

“Are you sure?” Leela asks. “I would not want to… break procedure.”

“Leela we’re not technically working.” Narvin reasons. “There’s no rule saying you can’t sleep if you’re not working.”

“I suppose not…” Leela yawns again. “Alright. I will sleep.” Leela shuffles over to Narvin, already regretting it, and rests her head on his shoulder. She feels Narvin tense up at the touch immediately.

“Um, what are you doing?”

“I am going to sleep.” Leela tells him. “Your robes are soft and warm, I am using them as a pillow.”

“I- well, um-” Narvin clears his throat. “Alright, I suppose that makes sense.”

Leela smiles at being able to make him stammer again. “Goodnight Narvin. I will not sleep too long.”

“Sleep well Leela.” Narvin says awkwardly. Leela shuts her eyes and allows herself to rest.

A few minutes pass and Narvin becomes less tense, as if warming to Leela’s touch. Leela hadn’t yet fallen asleep, instead staying in that dreamlike state where she’s neither sleeping nor is she fully conscious. Narvin clearly thought she was asleep though, because Leela feels his arm wrap around her awkwardly. He starts gently stroking her hair and she smiles to herself, enjoying the unexpected touch. She breathes out contently and allows herself to drift off to sleep in Narvin’s embrace.

Narvin isn’t aware that Leela is awake when he hugs her and feels awkward for holding her. He couldn’t help himself though, he’d been wanting to hug Leela for years.


End file.
